This is a minor variation of the "chicken paprika" recipe from "The Joy of Cooking."

Ingredients

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 1.5 tbsp butter
• 1.5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 2 tbsp Szeged paprika
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 2 tsp flour
• 1 cup sour cream

Method

Cut chicken into largeish chunks. Heat butter and oil in pan. Add onions and paprika, fry till glossy and red. Add chicken and broth. Simmer covered for 30 minutes. Simmer uncovered till liquid reduces a bit. Add flour to sourcream. Add sourcream to pan a bit at a time and stir it in. Don't bring to a boil, but let the sauce thicken.

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2020-03-28: This was my first attempt. I'm pretty pleased with it. Definitely a repeater.

The original recipe called for a 2.5 pound fryer, but I just used chicken breasts. I wanted thighs, but the store was out of them thanks to the coronavirus lockdown. If find myself wondering whether it would be better just to simmer it uncovered. I'll try that next time.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Cauliflower
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp chopped Shallots
• 1/2 cup Bouillon Vegetable Broth
• 2 tbsps Heavy Cream
• 2 tbsps Parsley
• 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese (Grated)

Method

1. Pulse cauliflower florets in a food processor until they are the size of grains of rice.
2. In a skillet over medium heat cook shallots in the olive oil until tender.
3. Add cauliflower and toss to coat; add vegetable stock and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Add cream, chopped parsley and cheese.
5. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

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2016-01-02: Today I tried this recipe for the first time. I will make it again. It's probably a mistake to call it risotto because it lacks the super-creamy texture of good risotto. I had never actually had really good risotto until last week, eating at Edible Canada on Granville Island in Vancouver. My niece had ordered a risotto dish, and it was awesome.

I dislike the "2 cups of cauliflower" direction. How much is that? Hard to say. I guesstimated and then weighed the result, which was 8 3/8 ounces. It was probably a touch too much. Nonetheless, the recipe turned out well tastewise. And I used chicken stock. Who the hell wants vegetarian bouillon?

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small cabbage, chopped
• 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar or wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• dash nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Method

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the ground beef and onion and cook, stirring, until ground beef is no longer pink and onion is tender. Add the garlic and continue cooking for 1 minute.

Add the chopped cabbage, tomatoes, tomato sauce, vinegar, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cabbage is tender.

Yield: Serves 6 to 8. (Source)

Notes

• If your beef isn't lean, leave out the olive oil.
• Most of the heads of cabbage in my store are pretty big. I used only 1/2 a head both times, and it worked great.

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2013-05-22: This turned out pretty good. Definitely a repeater.

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2013-05-27: Made it again today. Really pleased. This will now be a regular dish because it is so easy. Next time around I might use half ground pork.

Somehow, though, I'd like to make it a bit more hearty and savory. Not quite sure what is missing. Could probably thinking the sauce with some corn starch. Some carrots and celery would probably make it more savory, but I'm not sure how that would work with the cinnamon, but it would probably be okay.

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2013-07-13: still in Russia. Made another variation on this. This time I didn't use cabbage, but rather a pound of sweet yellow peppers. (Would have preferred spicy ones.) Half ground pork, half ground beef. Skipped the cinammon and nutmeg. Instead used a tablespoon of ground chipotles.

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2014-05-14: spices this time

• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground red pepper
• 1 tsp ground black pepper

Good. For guests I would take it down to 1/4 or 1/2 tsp of red pepper.

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2014-11-29: spices this time

• 1/4 cup sweet hungarian paprika
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground red pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced

This was a good spice combo. I had added 1/2 cup of hot water to the recipe. Next time to make it thicker, avoid that. If it doesn't get thick enough, use tomato paste instead of tomato sauce. And if that doesn't work, maybe some corn starch to thicken it.

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2015-12-04: this time I used:

• 1 tbsp of ground chipotle
• 1 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp of black pepper
• 1 tsp of salt

Good stuff.

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2016-10-02: This time I thought I would replace the tomatoes and tomato sauce with a can of green enchilada sauce, add four sliced raw jalapeños (seeded), added some cumin and I deleted the vinegar, salt, cinammon and nutmeg. In other words, I Mexicanized the dish. I like it. May repeat.

From “Atkins Low Carb Diet Recipes” by Adam K. Randle. Serves 4.

Ingredients

• 12 oz. fresh mushrooms
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1 lb. pork, browned and drained
• 1 pkg frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 pinch seasoning
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup swiss cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 375° F and grease casserole dish with butter. In a bowl combine cream, egg, and the egg yolks. Pour cream/egg mixture over everything else, browned and simmering. Bake 30 minutes.

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This is one of the recipes where the author didn't give too much detail, which is annoying. First I browned the sausage in a covered frying pan along with the onions and mushrooms, which produced a significant amount of liquid and fat. I figured they didn't want us to include that in the casserole, because if you mixed the eggs in right away, they would cook too fast, so I drained the meat mixture and put it in the casserole dish and let it cool for 15 minutes. In retrospect, though, I'm thinking they probably did want the liquid in there. And I stupidly forgot the spinach.

The liquid from the pan smelled heavenly. I tasted it. Tastes heavenly. Yes, it's probably 50% fat, but the idea that fat is bad for us is balderdash. I decided to keep it and see if it made a decent pan sauce as is, though there was probably only a cup of it.

On the whole, the casserole came out all right, but the egginess of it seemed not all that inspiring, and I suspect it won't be so great as left overs. I ended up not using the pan drippings for flavoring after all.

Next time around, I think maybe a basic bechamel with Swiss cheese might be a better option for the sauce.

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Cost

I wanted to estimate the cost of the dish. When dealing with small quantities of stuff, I just guesstimated whether it was closer to 10 cents or 25 cents. This ends up being kind of an expensive casserole for its size because of the heavy cream, swiss cheese and mushrooms.

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2013-05-21: actually, this stuff isn't bad on the reheat if you do it slow in the microwave. In my current microwave I used 2 minutes at power 4 for three small pieces. Warmed them decently without drying out.

I decided I wanted steak for breakfast. Grabbed a 1 lb top sirloin at Fry's for $8. Turned on the broiler in the oven. Broiler doesn't work. Damn. I'll have to stove-top it. Pulled out the dutch oven, put it on the back burner so the smoke would most effectively be removed by the fan, turned the stove to 7, which is way hotter than I normally cook.

I covered the steak with a bit of olive oil, some garlic powder and ground red pepper. Cut it in two so I could cook just half at a time. Gave it maybe three minutes a side so it was still red and bloody inside. So good! Next time I'll be a touch more generous with the garlic and red pepper.

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May 19, 2003, second time around. This time around I tried the temperature higher, at 7.5. This does not work as well. The surface burns too fast and the center doesn't get cooked. The level 7 worked okay for a pretty rare steak, but if I want the cooking to get more toward the center, I'm probably going to have to do a 5 or 6, especially if I'm cooking for someone who likes his steaks well done.

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October 14, 2013, another round. I may have waited too long to record this, but here is my memory. I took 1 tbsp of red pepper (spicy, not wimpy), 1 tbsp of garlic powder (cheap generic) and 1 tbsp of sea salt. Mixed them together, rubbed them on both sides of the steak. Fried them on the stove top at temperature 5 until it seemed right. Freakin’ awesome.

Power 5 is confirmed for good steaks on my current stove.

Ingredients

• one quarter head of cabbage, shredded fine
• juice of two small lemons
• salsa brava

Method

Mix cabbage with lemon juice till all the cabbage is covered. Mix with enough salsa brava to cover all the cabbage. Makes two servings.

I liked this.

Here's another version of picadillo. I've abandoned that vegetarian stupidity. I'm now convinced that carbs are the main problem in the American diet. Here's today's variation.

• 2 lbs. hamburger
• 1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped
• 1 tbsp ground chipotle
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper, ground
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
• Chicken broth/water to cover

Fry the garlic in a bit of oil. Remove garlic. Fry burger and onions and cauliflower until the beef is done. Add the garlic back in. Throw in the chipotle, cumin, tomatoes, salt, pepper. Add enough broth to cover the mess. Simmer until the cauliflower is the consistency you like.

This turned out good. Next time I might make it spicier by adding some chiles tepines. The recipe is Atkins friendly.

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2015-11-22: I made it again tonight. This time I added a packet of red peppers left over from a Pizza Hut delivery. Entirely edible.